5 Thoughts: Seton Hall survives scare against DePaul

Jared Rhoden carried Seton Hall to victory Saturday with 18 points and 18 rebounds against DePaul. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

By Jason Guerette (@JPGuerette)

NEWARK, N.J. — Seton Hall came home after a pair of road losses in the mega-tough Big East, and thanks to a sluggish offensive performance by most of the team, found itself needing to be mega-tough down the stretch against the DePaul Blue Demons.

Down five points with five minutes to play, it wasn't pretty, but the Pirates rallied for a 66-64 victory, avoiding a resume-damaging defeat to the lowly Blue Demons.

After a long time away from the Rock, here are the Thoughts:

1. Locked In

Seton Hall came in ready to work tonight. Its defense in the first half was outstanding, and even though its offense was delayed in catching up, the Pirates harassed the Blue Demons into a 1-for-17 start and a 5-for-28 first half. 

Javon Freeman-Liberty, who came in averaging over 20 points per game, didn't make a single basket in the first half, scoring two points on free throws to avoid a bagel on the scoreboard. Kevin Willard credited Myles Cale, his best perimeter defender, for bottling up the Demons' star player and setting the tone early.

After giving up 52 points in Chicago in the first 20 minutes in the first matchup between the teams, and knowing how important holding serve is at home, it was great to see the Pirates show that fight on the defensive end. Unfortunately, Cale was also saddled with foul trouble for most of the game, and it limited him in the second half when Freeman-Liberty got going (more on that in a bit).

2. Kadary K.O.

Despite the fantastic defense to start, the Seton Hall offense was slow to pick up speed, and one of the reasons why was Kadary Richmond, not because of poor play, but because of what he went through leading up to this game. Richmond didn't practice at all in the two days leading up to this game because of a 102-degree fever.

"What that kid did today was exceptional," Willard said. "He wasn't even supposed to play. He came up to me right before the game (after) getting an IV all the way up until warmups, and he said, 'just don't take me out, I'm fine.' That's what I love about his toughness. It's also why I gave him the ball without calling timeout at the end of the game because I think he's developing into a really good player."

Richmond ended up scoring 11 points with seven rebounds and five assists, and as Willard alluded to, he drove inside and scored what proved to be the game-winning layup. If Jared Rhoden didn't have the game that he had, Richmond would have been the player of the game based solely on what he had to do just to be on the floor tonight.

3. Rhode(n) Island

With all those misses by the Blue Demons in the first half, there were a ton of rebounds to be had. Rhoden put the Hall on his back in this regard, with eight points and 13 boards en route to a monster night of 18 points and a career-high 18 rebounds, the most of any Big East player this season in any game. 

"It's something I take pride in," Rhoden said. "I only had two rebounds last game, so I took that kind of personally. I just have to get back to my old self, being gritty."

For most of the game, Rhoden was the only Pirate who was really doing damage on the floor on both ends, in fact, as the supporting cast mostly had tough shooting nights. But with Cale in foul trouble, it was Rhoden who stepped up late on defense as well. 

With time winding down, Freeman-Liberty had the ball in his hands and attempted a 3-pointer that would have put DePaul in front by two had it gone in. But Rhoden got a piece of the shot, and DePaul would not be able to control it on the baseline, giving the Pirates their biggest stop of the night.

"Being here for a long time now, I know what's at stake," he said. "I know how important these games are, especially home games. Gutting it out and grinding it out is important. Making the tournament is important to me in my last year, so I'm going to will us any way I can."  

Willard also put it well in his comments, saying that Rhoden "played like a guy that understands what time of year it is and where we are."

4. Don't Give Me Liberty

Without his best defender coming down the stretch, I asked Willard about what he wanted to do with Freeman-Liberty since it was obvious that he was going to have the ball in his hands.

"Pray," the skipper said, earning chuckles from the attending media. "Sometimes you just gotta hope the big man's on your side and that he misses a shot."

Willard then broke it down in detail.

"The first possession, the one he shot the airball on the three, we switched our pick-and-roll coverage. We were just going to trap him, and I thought we did a really good job. The second time after we missed a free throw, he made a good move and just missed a tough shot. I would say that praying had something to do with it when the ball was up in the air."

Willard would prefer to have Cale on the floor 100 times out of 100 in that situation, but the Pirates were able to make the most of the tough spot, and won the game at the end because of it.

5. Don't Call It Ugly

A lot of observers would call this an "ugly win." But don't tell that to Rhoden, who made an astute point about this game afterwards.

"I wouldn't call it an ugly game. I'd say that's what the Big East is about," Rhoden said. "You play in this league for so long, there are a million games like that. That's what the Big East is about, especially with two hard-nosed teams. At the end, you never know what you're going to get."

There is some truth to that. Perhaps the barometer that fans should go by when it comes to Big East games is that no game is ever ugly, that the games that are ugly on the surface are just regular Big East games, and that if you get an aesthetically pleasing win, you should savor it as a rare gem.

And certainly, if you come out on the winning end of a Big East game, you take it no matter how it looked.